Elite Group's Matt Newing, discusses maximising your exit value

In the world of acquisitions, ignorance is certainly not bliss.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. When it comes to buying or selling a business, the more information you have, the better.

Many people believe that the skills they have used to build their company are the same ones they will need to exit their business. In reality, both the skills and knowledge required to successfully sell a business are totally and utterly different.

When I started my business with a small loan and grant from the Princes Trust, it was passion, grit and determination that finally started generating some success. For me, it was a lesson that was painfully self-taught. Since these early days, I’ve had the opportunity to buy over 20 businesses and invest in many others, building a diverse and strong portfolio with the help of a successful acquisitions strategy.

As someone who’s been through several acquisitions over the course of my career, I can tell you that the exit value of your business is not just a figure on a spreadsheet from a banker or investor: there’s no set formula. Someone will ultimately pay what it is worth to them and your company may have a higher value than you think.

Whether you’re buying or selling a business, there are many factors to address. Is it going to remain standalone? Will it be integrated into an existing business? It’s as much of an art form as it is a science.

As a business owner, considering selling your business is one of the hardest decisions you will have to make. With all the time, effort and money you’ve invested in growing your business, it can be hard to release control. Yet everything moves in cycles and it’s certainly a great time to be selling a hosted voice, IT business, Microsoft partner or managed services company.

How to Maximise Your Exit Value

If you do decide to sell your business, there are a few things you can do to maximise your exit value:

1. Ensure all your contracts are signed, the longer the contract period the better.
2. Make sure all customers are on Direct Debit.
3. Ensure all your company accounts are audited, even if they do not reach the financial audit exemption of less than £10.2m.
4. Make sure all company records and all employees and employer legal documents are signed and up to date.
5. Ensure all risky customers are credit checked regularly and that payments are made on accounts if the credit limit is exceeded.
6. Ensure no more than 5% of your revenue and gross profit comes from one client/customer.

If your business already ticks all the boxes above, it’s a great start and you are in a rare position. If not, covering these points before you commit to selling can help you get the most out of your business, maximising the exit value of your company and ensuring maximum ROI on the time, money and effort that’s gone into building your business from the ground up.

So Why Sell to Elite Group?

At Elite Group, acquisitions have always been a critical part of our growth strategy.  For us, acquisitions result in agility and powerful reactivity, whilst allowing us to expand our knowledge, experience and talent pool. We are part way through a successful growth story and are looking to acquire more successful people, more great skill sets and additional market-leading products and services. In other words, if you’re looking to sell your business, we’re looking to buy.

We’re always on the lookout for acquisition opportunities, including:

• Connectivity providers
• Hosted voice and telephony services
• SIP and VoIP
• Mitel resellers
• Reseller of business mobile services
• Managed service providers
• Microsoft partners
• Virtualised infrastructure and cloud specialists
• Hosted Desktop providers
• Microsoft Teams and cloud solution providers
• Network and security software
• Hosted and cloud applications

There are many reasons why you should consider selling your business to Elite Group. Our expert acquisition team take the time and effort to really understand your business and your exit requirements- and have a £30 million Acquisitions Facility available to find and acquire any value-adding businesses in the IT and communications industry.

Having previously completed several successful acquisitions over the company’s 20-year history, we have the experience and knowledge necessary for a smooth acquisition, as well as the ability to successfully integrate people and systems into our growing business group.

When it comes to the all-important financial aspects, Elite Group has a faultless acquisition history; we’ve always paid out the deferred payments and have historically always paid on high valuations. More importantly, we don’t play hardball or pressurise you into making a decision you’re not happy with; if you don’t like what you see, you can walk away at any time.

So, what have you got to lose? Get in touch with us today for a chat about our acquisition approach and find out how you could maximise your exit value with Elite Group.

Elite Group is one of the UK’s leading unified communication providers, supplying reliable and professional IT and unified communication services to organisations seeking Business Mobile, Cloud, Networking, Connectivity, and Telephony solutions.

For more information on how Elite Group can power your unified communication solutions, contact us today.